OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've got a friend visiting me in the next couple of days who is a pretty good TT player. Anyway, he said he had an extra sheet of tsp spectol in 1.7mm, so I convinced him to lend it to me I'll try to post a review of it in the next week or so...it would be from a defensive bias of course, but I'll be sure to try out it's offensive potential as well.

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Cool! I look forward to it! Perhaps you can make some comparisons to one of the more offensive LPs you've tried?

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sure thing, I'll compare it to Cloud and Fog III cause that's what I'm using now, and I find it has the most offensive potential out of the long pips I've tried so far.

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Well, I only got use it a couple of hours so I can only give my initial impressions. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have another chance to hit with it again before he leaves, so unless I buy a sheet I can only give a first impression of the rubber.

Appearance:
The quality of the sheet looks very nice, a huge step up from the quality of the 802's I had previously used. The 1.7mm sponge felt very smooth, and seemed to be about 38 degrees (not positive though). The pips are arranged vertically, as opposed to the 802-40s horizontal rows, and they are also spaced further apart than the 802-40. The tops of the pips are very textured which help to grip the ball.

Playing Characteristics:
I'm no short pips player thats for sure, but from my limited experience, the spectol seemed to be a great all-around rubber.

Attacking and blocking close to the table was very effective. It is definately a lot more sensitive to spin then long pips, so it's hard to compare the two. The spectol is definetly easier to attack with then Cloud and Fog III, but you sacrifice a ton of control once you are defending off the table.

I actually found it very easy to give deep, low pushes against backspin, and I think that with some practice, it could serve effectively as well. Chopping was much harder than with even the fastest long pips I've tried. On the other hand, compared to the other short pips I've tried, I found the spectol to be the easiest to chop with.

Overall, I really liked it compared to my past experiences with short pips, but I feel like the loss of control when chopping proved to be too much for my game.

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Thanks for the feedback! I've never found a short pip that I could defend as well as with LP... but then again most short pip are designed for a more offensive game.... With a thinner sponge it would probably be a lot better...

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Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

perhaps...oddly enough it was still better for chopping in 1.7 then the 802-40 I used in 1.0...

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Perhaps you liked Spectol better because it was softer than 802.

You might try 799 in a thin sponge as it is softer and with narrower pips, so is more like Spectol. It's cheap too.

-- Andrew

I might do that, I almost got a sheet of 799, but I'm trying to resist the EJ bug

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Ive tried Spectol 21 1.7mm for chopping awhile back. Its really hard to slow down the ball, unlike long pips it doesn't do anything for you. The harder the incoming chop the faster your stroke has to be to match the incoming rotation. Also the blade angle is incredibly important, just a slight miscalculation and the ball sails high, long or in the net.

Generally the consistency in chopping with short pips is quite poor and alot harder to do. With long pips I could chop all day giving heavy/floaters back. With short pips I'm struggling to put the ball on the table and most of the time it goes back with no spin, with the extremely heavy back once in a while (out of my control).

Ive found that its better for aggressive chopping. Ive seen videos with hou yingchao (a chinese chopper at the top of the world using the same rubber) chopping with it easily. I have no idea how he does what he does, just way too hard

Oh and as for 799, tried that before in 1mm for chopping as well. Same effect, incredibly hard to control. Its more of a medium-short soft control pip. Compared to 802 its much softer and forgiving.

Overall for short pip chopping I find that under 1.5mm sponges work against you as the blade speeds up the ball. A 1.6-1.8mm slow sponge would be ideal IMO.

yeah, from what i've experienced I think your right. The thicker sponge really helps keep the ball off the blade. Watching vids of hou yingchao chop was what got me into short pips in the first place. He has such an incredibly technical style. I've actually come to admire him even more than the other top choppers. Actually, a couple of videos I have of him show Chen Weixing coaching him from the sidelines.

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I've got a sheet of spectol 21 2.15mm now.

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Chasse Patate

Let us know how it plays so far I know the pips are quite large and its vertically arranged. The 21 sponge is very soft If I remember right, should be around 35 as well like the 802-410 supersoft.

the pips are smaller in diameter than Tango Ultra and 802-40 (i think. I'll have to check). The sponge is 35 +/- 3 or something - a bit harder than the supersoft sponge IIRC.

i'll take a pic or two later.

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Chasse Patate

This 21 sponge is softer than I recall underneath the X's F1 topsheet.

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Chasse Patate

Yeap. I remember when I ordered a 1.7 spectol 21 for a friend. The sponge was very mushy. He glued it onto a Samsonov Carbon which is pretty pointless as I couldn't determine anything due to the insane speed of the blade.